National Building Agency (Hansard, 9 June 1967)

§ Mr. Greenwood

The Chairman of the Agency has now issued, with the agreement of the Secretary of State for Wales and myself, a statement about the functions of the Agency in England and Wales. The statement makes it clear that the Agency will continue to be mainly concerned with promoting productivity in house building. The full statement is as follows:

FUTURE ACTIVITIES OF THE NATIONAL BUILDING AGENCY IN ENGLAND AND WALES

No change is proposed in the basic constitution and terms of reference of the Agency. Its main functions in the immediate future will be, in co-operation with the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, and the Welsh Office, to help improve productivity, consistent with reasonable price and quality of the dwelling and the environment, in both public and private housebuilding. It will provide services to building clients, in particular the public authorities and their professional advisers, and to manufacturing and building firms predominantly engaged in housing. (Reference to public authorities includes local housing authorities and consortia, new town corporations, Government departments, housing associations and other semi-public building organisations.)

These services will include:

(1) Appraisal of housing systems—and related studies (for example, plan analyses and joints in precast systems) arising from the application of industrialised or rationalised techniques to housing.
(2) Information services to industry on industrialised housing, for both the public and private sectors, including technical reports, market analyses, and performance specifications—some of them confidential.
(3) Consultancy services to public authorities on the management and organisation of housing programmes, including the 286 preparation of networks and proposals for co-ordination of inter-departmental work.
(4) Advisory professional services to public authorities to encourage the fullest use of improved building techniques in housing programmes. These services cover contract procedures, the selection of contractors and of systems or techniques, planning and design disciplines, cost control and the briefing of private consultants.
(5) Consultancy services to direct labour departments, and equally to housing contractors on the introduction of more efficient management and control.
(6) Development work including live building projects, to be agreed with the Ministry, to demonstrate or to investigate particular problems associated with the rationalisation and industrialisation of housing.
(7) Full professional services for the Housing Corporation.
(8) Work in assisting the transition to metric measure and the introduction of new metric components.
(9) An extended training programme in cooperation with the Construction Industry Training Board for technical and administrative staffs of local authorities and of private firms, to encourage better pre-contract coordination, improved management and financial techniques and new building methods.
(10) Where requested by the Ministry or local authorities to undertake the role of a central co-ordinating body for selected programmes of industrialised housing in the public sector. This work may include the assessment and clarification of requirements, the preparation of feasibility studies and of programme networks, and co-ordination of the work of professional teams representing the Ministry and the building clients.

There will be continuing liaison between the Agency and the Ministry on all aspects of the Agency's work and its future development. The Agency itself will make suggestions to the Ministry for extending its functions as the circumstances may require.